As an advance scout for the Golden State Warriors and previously for the Chicago Bulls, Chris Thomas has spent several late nights during the past five seasons trying to prepare his teams for games against Suns point guard Goran Dragic.

Dragic’s adept pick-and-roll play is always a key to Thomas’ scouting reports that go to coaches and players. He reminds them of how dangerous Dragic is in transition. He warns them that Dragic’s stepback jumper is one of the better ones in the NBA.

Thomas’ message last season: “If we can stop this guy, we’ll put ourselves in a position to be successful.”

For someone not on Dragic’s bench, Thomas knew Dragic well. Now as someone on the same bench, he knows him better.

Thomas has spent the past 70 days with Dragic, who has led his Slovenian national team to the quarterfinals of the European Championship in his hometown Ljubljana. As a first-year assistant coach for Slovenia, Thomas has seen the Dragic that a young Suns team will need this season.

“I didn’t realize what a tremendous leader he is, by his words and example,” Thomas said. “I marvel at how our guys look up to him on a daily basis. It’s impressed me beyond what I can express.”

Thomas has an incredible seat for Slovenia’s greatest athletic moment. Slovenia is the center of the basketball universe this month. A nation of 2 million people is hosting Europe’s premier basketball event, and the home team is two wins from its first medal ever.

Slovenia, which already has a win against two-time defending champion Spain, will face France at noon (Arizona time) Wednesday on NBATV. Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Nicolas Batum will be famous French names on the floor, but the green-clad faithful at Stozice Arena will be chanting, “Go-gi, Go-gi, Go-gi,” for Dragic.

Dragic, after only playing five minutes of a meaningless Monday loss to Finland, is averaging 15.2 points, 4.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 23.2 minutes per game for Slovenia.

He is shooting 39 percent from the field, but the low clip is a product of how he has a greater burden to score and create than Parker, who has seven NBA teammates, or Spain’s Ricky Rubio, with five NBA veterans.

The closest Dragic gets to NBA help is Rasho Nesterovic serving as a mentor in the program. Beno Udrih is not playing. Dragic’s brother, Zoran, was a Houston summer-league player last year.

Spain, second only to the U.S. in world basketball, threw Rubio, Sergio Rodriguez, Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez at Dragic in waves to wear him down. Slovenia won 78-69, with 18 points and seven rebounds from Dragic.

“Every punch they threw at him, he had a counterpunch,” Thomas said. “We’ve had stretches where he’s put the entire team on his back and carried us, especially offensively.

“We look to him a lot for those bailout shots at the end of the shot clock or where we just have to get something going. We throw the ball to him and expect him to create. The ball just finds its way to him.”

As Slovenia’s tempo increased in recent games, so did Dragic’s scoring. His temperament has been different, too. The cordial 27-year-old who once lacked confidence became surly in a pre-tournament exhibition when he was ejected for shoving a Turkish guard for some post-whistle contact.

“I don’t know if it’s the pride of putting on a jersey with your home country on it or if he’s turning the corner as far as being that feisty, gritty, gutsy guy that I know he is now, but hopefully he’ll bring it back to Phoenix with him,” Thomas said.

No matter the tournament outcome, Dragic plans to head to Phoenix three days after it ends — five days before he is required to report in Phoenix. He has spent his summer in Slovenia, training and playing, and now has a month of training camp and preseason before an 82-game season in an up-tempo system geared around him.

“His point is that it’s actually going to be good for him because he’ll be three weeks ahead of everyone else,” Thomas said.

Reach The Heat Index at 602-444-2470 or paul.coro@ariznarepublic.com. Follow Coro on Twitter at twitter.com/paulcoro.

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.